Europe continues to burn at unprecedented rates.
From January 1st to today, 515,000 hectares have gone up in smoke in the 27 EU countries, an area larger than the entire Balearic archipelago (499,000 hectares).
This is the highest figure recorded in the last 16 years, and exceeds the average of hectares burned in an entire year from 2006 to 2021. The figure emerges from an analysis of data provided by the European Forest Fire Information System (Effis) of the Commission European.
The number of large fires (over 30 hectares) that have started so far in the EU has reached 1,946: never so many since 2006.
In
Italy
so far 27,883 hectares have been burned, more than the average of the last 16 years: 243 large fires.
